NBDC Science and Reflection Workshop

4-6 May 2011

ILRI Campus, Addis Ababa


Ideas dropped in the Storage Jar


  • Need integrated approach ... for communities to avoid
    • mixed messages
    • consultation/research fatigue
  • Linking models to community engagement
  • Water productivity:
    • Most of the databases are crude and small scale to rely on for modeling (e.g. soil map of Ethiopia is about 1:00,000 scale) our hydrological database are scant
    • The modeling will suffer of reliability. Clear biophysical and social contexts need to be made both to model processes and outscaling results
  • Communities can be sources of data. How do you put it?
  • In terms of process it is a big task to be presented with the innovative platforms and headline question and to immediately ask have we got it right? sometime for digest and reflection be there
  • RMS scenarios group
  • So many hydrological national partners
  • What is the scale of community conversations/action research
  • How to link modeling to innovation platforms and action research
  • Focus and prioritization in science
  • The NBDC is very ambitious. What will really be done in practical terms?
  • Now we have some RMS for each site - but how do we progress this. How do we get farmers/communities more involved?
  • Need to introduce gender perspective to Kees Swanns innovation platform document
  • Recurring point: Involve the communities - Who? How?
  • Be pragmatic
  • A high volume of work which was very rich and diverse has been presented throughout the workshop. Is there a process to prioritize and bring them together?